The Winter Sonata Boom / The Kanryu Wave

[M Arnold]

I spent New Year's Eve with a few film/video industry folks. They kept
flipping the TV between the K-1 and Pride fighting matches, occasionally
checking out what was happening on the Kohaku. I actually wanted to see a
little more of the singing--is it just me or does the Matsuken Sanba sound
like "Copacabana"?--but they, and I after a while, got really into the 
fighting. I don't remember watching K-1 on New Year's Eve in the past in 
Japan. Is this a new thing?

Anyway one of the people there recently visited South Korea to show his film 
at the "Japanese Film: Love and Youth 1965-1998" film festival in November. 
(He's a rather opinionated fellow, and his take on the whole Korea boom is 
fairly negative. But that's a different story.) At any rate I'm not sure if 
this festival has been mentioned here but did anyone else take a look at the 
schedule? Quite an odd selection of not really the most interesting Japanese 
films over three decades.
http://www.bunka.go.jp/1bungei/nihoneiga_65-98.html

Michael Arnold